ReviewBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2021
Effect of redundant clinical trials from mainland China evaluating statins in patients with coronary artery disease: cross sectional study.
Review in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- The sound and surprise: overlapping meta-analyses on the topic of safety and efficacy of PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Systematic evaluation of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials of digital health in cardiovascular diseases.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- A qualitative study on the management system for investigator-initiated studies in healthcare institutions in Beijing, China.Health research policy and systems · 2024Article
- The effect of positive mental well-being on patient reported outcome (PRO): finding from a cross-sectional multi-disease study in China.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2024Article
- How can China tackle its declining fertility rate?BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Article
- Redefining cancer research for therapeutic breakthroughs.British journal of cancer · 2024Review
- From past to present: tracing the trends of diabetes drug trials in mainland China.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- Trends of Randomized Clinical Trials Citing Prior Systematic Reviews, 2007-2021.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Assessment of redundant randomized clinical trials among patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- A cross-sectional study on the application of patient-reported outcome measurements in clinical trials of traditional Chinese medicine in mainland China.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Meta-research evaluating redundancy and use of systematic reviews when planning new studies in health research: a scoping review.Systematic reviews · 2022Article
- [Challenges of Investigator-initiated Clinical Trials to Support the New Drug Development].Zhongguo fei ai za zhi = Chinese journal of lung cancer · 2022Article
- Application of Patient-Reported Outcome Measurements in Clinical Trials in China.JAMA network open · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo identify redundant clinical trials evaluating statin treatment in patients with coronary artery disease from mainland China, and to estimate the number of extra major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) experienced by participants not treated with statins in those trials.
designCross sectional study.
setting2577 randomized clinical trials comparing statin treatment with placebo or no treatment in patients with coronary artery disease from mainland China, searched from bibliographic databases to December 2019.
participants250 810 patients with any type of coronary artery disease who were enrolled in the 2577 randomized clinical trials.
main outcome measuresRedundant clinical trials were defined as randomized clinical trials that initiated or continued recruiting after 2008 (ie, one year after statin treatment was strongly recommended by clinical practice guidelines). The primary outcome is the number of extra MACEs that were attributable to the deprivation of statins among patients in the control groups of redundant clinical trials-that is, the number of extra MACEs that could have been prevented if patients were given statins. Cumulative meta-analyses were also conducted to establish the time points when statins were shown to have a statistically significant effect on coronary artery disease.
results2045 redundant clinical trials were identified published between 2008 and 2019, comprising 101 486 patients in the control groups not treated with statins for 24 638 person years. 3470 (95% confidence interval 3230 to 3619) extra MACEs were reported, including 559 (95% confidence interval 506 to 612) deaths, 973 (95% confidence interval 897 to 1052) patients with new or recurrent myocardial infarction, 161 (132 to 190) patients with stroke, 83 (58 to 105) patients requiring revascularization, 398 (352 to 448) patients with heart failure, 1197 (1110 to 1282) patients with recurrent or deteriorated angina pectoris, and 99 (95% confidence interval 69 to 129) unspecified MACEs.
conclusionsOf more than 2000 redundant clinical trials on statins in patients with coronary artery disease identified from mainland China, an extra 3000 MACEs, including nearly 600 deaths, were experienced by participants not treated with statins in these trials. The scale of redundancy necessitates urgent reform to protect patients.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.